Inside the Maple Leafs’ travels on the road: Cookies, poker and learning chess

When it comes to life on the road, Simon Benoit keeps things simple.

“One bag, and one suit bag. That’s it. Even if we’re going for one day or seven days, always the same,” the Toronto Maple Leafs defenceman said.

But the more he thinks about the team’s California road trip, he winces. Maybe travelling as an NHL player is not as cut and dry as Benoit makes it out to be.

“I’ll need a book,” Benoit added, rubbing his chin. “And my computer, too.”

Benoit and his teammates will undoubtedly need more than a single suit for January. The Leafs spend almost the entirety of the month on the road, crisscrossing most of the continent with nine road games.

Whether it’s preparing for a career after hockey, playing heated games of poker or even arguing about cookies, players treat their time on the road differently.

Travelling is part of NHL life that players rarely discuss, but The Athletic got a glimpse inside their many long hours on the team’s Air Canada Jetz charter flight.

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There’s never a shortage of ins and outs of NHL life for young players to learn. How to fly, quite literally, is high on the list.

Seats are not assigned, causing some anxiety as rookies first step on the plane.

“I was pretty nervous,” Nick Robertson admitted about his first time. “That’s still the case.”

The team’s rookies and young players must sit toward the front of the plane, behind the team coaches and staff.

“An unwritten rule,” Matthew Knies said. “Young guys in the front, and wait for the old guys to get off the plane. Big dogs at the back.”

But, Knies points out, the front is where players are most likely to find an entire row for themselves.

Knies sits beside fellow NCAA product Bobby McMann. The two have formed a quick friendship and will usually chat each other’s ear off after takeoff.

But Knies is then first to plug his headphones in. He’s normally a fan of the “Spittin’ Chiclets” podcast but can’t listen during the season.

“I don’t need to hear about (the NHL) more than I see it,” Knies said.

Odds are, Knies will go on the hunt for a new show. But like so many of us, he finds he wastes too much time wading through the endless content choices.

“I have a login for almost everything,” Knies said. “I just can’t find anything.”

For McMann, the time in the air is an opportunity to study. He will often listen to the latest “Diary of a CEO” podcast.

“(Host Steven Bartlett) gets guests talking about different things, usually about how to improve your health and how to get better sleep and how to improve your nutrition,” McMann said.

McMann is committed to making every minute of a flight count toward self-improvement.

“If I start getting sleepy, because listening to podcasts can put me out a little bit, I’ll start to read, because that’s a new stimulus, to start reading,” McMann said.

It’s always non-fiction for McMann, such as a recent read: “The Molecule of More: How a Single Chemical in Your Brain Drives Love, Sex, and Creativity ― and Will Determine the Fate of the Human Race.”

“I’ve been drawn to your health and life span, and how you can improve both those things,” McMann said. “I want to optimize my health and my performance more than anything. You’re never going to get it perfect, but just the more knowledge you have, the better you’re going to be aware of what choices you want to make.”

Speaking of choices, travelling with the Leafs means being offered a caramel chocolate cookie prepared by the team’s chefs. But there’s a catch.

“There’s a huge argument going on because I don’t think they’re that good,” Knies said. “There’s too much sea salt on top for me. I can’t complain, but I also can’t believe people are saying they’re that good.”

In an interview during preseason ahead of a short flight, Shane Doan stopped dead in his tracks when he saw a tray of cookies roll by.

“Are there cookies on the flight?” he asked one of the team chefs excitedly. “Yes! Is there any way I could get a few now? My wife gets in tomorrow but I won’t be here. But if I leave her cookies…”

Doan isn’t alone with his sweet tooth.

“Sometimes I’ll ask for the cookies before the meal,” Connor Timmins said.

“Always get two rounds of cookies,” Benoit said. “Unreal. They’re gluten-free. At least, I’m pretty sure they are.”

While he nibbles on his cookies, Benoit is one player who always keeps to himself toward the front of the plane. The defenceman detests flying, so he buries his head in real estate books.

Off the ice, he’s begun dabbling in real estate. He currently owns a multi-family home in Montreal that he rents out. And so preparing for a possible future in a different industry is a perfect way to distract him from the fact that he’s stranded thousands of feet in the air.

“After my career, I want to work in real estate. It’s good to keep my mind focused on something. You never know what you’ll do after your career because you’ve played hockey your whole life, right? I just want to keep doing something interesting,” Benoit said.

Nearby Benoit sits Timmins, who has taken up a new hobby on flights: Playing chess on an app. The hobby took on a life of its own during the team’s overnight flight to Sweden in November. Out of the corner of his eye, Leafs president Brendan Shanahan caught Timmins playing chess.

Timmins was new to the game. But Shanahan, evidently a chess fan, began guiding the young blueliner through the strategies and finer points of the game.

“I was getting killed by the computer. But (Shanahan) showed me some moves, and now I’m addicted to it,” Timmins said.

Beside Timmins, Robertson hardly watches the nearby games of chess. That’s because most of the time, Robertson is tucked into a pillow.

Once he’s finished scarfing down some food, Robertson will pop on his headphones and unwind with some hip-hop. Minutes afterward, regardless of whether it’s a short jaunt across Ontario to play the Ottawa Senators or hauling across the continent for the California trip, the forward is a habitual sleeper.

“No matter if it’s the morning, day or night, I can sleep,” Robertson said. “I can sleep from 5 to 6 p.m. and then go back to sleep again at 9:30 p.m. My whole family are big nappers.”

Robertson is lucky he can sleep because many other teammates can’t drown out the sound of the loudest section on the team flight: The middle, reserved for the team’s longstanding game of Texas hold ‘em poker.

There are two tables of four seats each pulled together almost immediately after players board, regardless of the duration of the flight. It’s always the same group: Mitch Marner, Ilya Samsonov, TJ Brodie, Morgan Rielly, Jake McCabe, Ryan Reaves, Mark Giordano and Tyler Bertuzzi.

“It’s the one thing I really look forward to on a road trip, the game of cards,” McCabe said.

The card game has been going since before Rielly, the longest-serving current Leaf, arrived in Toronto. It took him four seasons to crack the table.

“There’s a couple good players, a bunch of medium players…and then two or three bad players,” Rielly, ever protective of his teammates, said of who has the best poker game. “So, those are the ones who you’re more afraid of.”

But others are more willing to spill the tea.

“Mitch is nice and patient, he plays his good hands,” McCabe said. “(Samsonov), I never know what I’m gonna get from Sammy. He’s won a lot of big hands this year. I’ll have a Queen kicker, and he’ll have a King kicker.”

According to Reaves, McCabe and Samsonov have been riding high lately.

McCabe refutes that.

“I’m not being patient enough,” McCabe said. “I’m playing too often. I like to see the cards. I like the action.”

“It’s been a rollercoaster for everybody, to be honest,” Reaves said. This is the first team he’s ever played poker consistently with on flights. “Poker is usually my playoff game, when you stay in a city and you have a common room and play on days off or after games.”

Even if there’s some debate over who the best poker player is, there’s little debate over the loudest.

“Mitch,” David Kampf said. “He’s always talking.”

“(Marner) doesn’t bluff a lot. If he is bluffing, he won’t see it through if people try to call him on it. He’ll jump out of there pretty quick,” Reaves said.

Even amidst all the bluffing, the card table serves another purpose. While some poker players are adamant about those players not involved in hands remaining mum, in this game, “there’s some rules of table talking being broken,” according to Rielly.

“It’s a great way to have conversations. The guys who aren’t playing in that hand, they’re talking, asking questions. You talk about life, you get to know one another,” Rielly said.

But perhaps the most integral person to the game? The one who keeps a running tally of the scores and who owes what, Kampf.

“Me and (McCabe) were trying to add up the totals, and we were in a world of hurt,” Rielly said. “So Kampf came in and helped us.”

It’s his first season in charge after Alex Kerfoot previously filled the role. This would logically make Kampf a trustworthy person, no?

“Yeah,” Kampf said with a sly grin, “but I think everyone knows their scores.”

Kampf is rewarded for his responsibility by being the only player allowed to hop in and out of the game. If he’s not interested in playing, he might watch a documentary, such as the new showing on Netflix: “World War II: From the Frontlines.”

Behind the card table is the space occupied for veterans.

“The card table is pretty lively, but then it gets quieter behind them,” Noah Gregor said.

That space is where you’ll find players like Gregor taking a well-worn route. He’ll throw on his over-ear headphones and catch up on shows he might have missed during the season.

“I’m finishing the last season of ‘Ted Lasso,’” Gregor said. “I know I’m a little behind on it.”

When Gregor was on the San Jose Sharks, who have long flight times compared to the Leafs, he could sleep regularly. Not anymore.

“It must have been that the flights were longer in San Jose, so now, with these hour-long flights, there’s no point in me sleeping. I just stay up,” Gregor said.

Years of games have caught up with other veterans as well. Right at the back of the plane, Auston Matthews and Max Domi sit together. The pair have known each other for years and will chat with ease before Domi will nod off. He used to play cards on previous teams, but felt he had to make a change.

“Honestly, it just felt like there was so much time (on flights) to catch up on my sleep,” Domi said.

The one person who might prevent Domi from getting some rest? Ironically, one who is trying to manage his own sleep schedule.

On flights, John Tavares has developed an intriguing habit. Regardless of whether the sun is shining or not, he insists on keeping his window shade open so he can get as much light exposure during the day, especially when changing time zones.

“Some guys don’t like it so much,” Tavares said with a smile.

Tavares has always listened to his trainers, and athletic therapists in the hopes of learning better health practices. By keeping his body regulated and convincing his internal rhythms when it’s time to shut it down at the end of a long day, he hopes to get a better night’s sleep.

“I’m trying to understand how to manipulate those things, especially with the type of stress that we’re under,” Tavares said. “Early in my career, I was not as aware of some of that stuff. There are times when you are restless, you have to get to sleep and then you play the next day.”

He’s seeing benefits from his habit: Better sleep could lead to decreased inflammation.

And so while he might nap for 20 minutes on a flight with the sun glaring in his eyes, he’s still taking the time to prepare himself for that evening.

“Sleep is the number one thing I would value or food, nutrition, training,” Tavares said.

Finally, though the once-healthy Swedish contingent on this Leafs team has dwindled, William Nylander and Calle Jarnkrok still make time for each other at the back of every flight.

“Me and Willy watch TV shows together,” Jarnkrok said.

No, they won’t share earbuds like some of us who used to travel on a dime did. And no, they won’t fire up Swedish subtitles, either.

Instead, they’ll try to remember what happened in past episodes before pressing play on their screens at the exact same time. No spoilers, of course.

The friends are currently deep into the second season of the acclaimed crime series “Narcos,” which premiered in 2016. Jarnkrok sheepishly admits they’re a few years late, and even have another season left to go, but there’s a reason for that. His seatmate is someone who values a nap so much that he used to bring thick yoga mats on long bus rides in junior hockey just so he could get his shut-eye.

“That’s why we’ve only got through the second season,” Jarnkrok said. “Willy is sleeping all the time.”

(Top photo: Bruce Bennett / Getty Images)